Editorial: A lesson learned the hard way: No privacy online

Listen up: There's no privacy online. At least, no guarantee of privacy even when you want it the most.

This much is clear from the still-unfolding saga of an Oxnard middle-school science teacher whose classroom career was derailed when officials learned she had acted in pornographic films that could be found on the Internet.

The Oxnard School District board voted in April to fire the teacher. This month, a Commission on Professional Competence upheld the school board's action.

The teacher still has other avenues to appeal the decision. We don't know whether, as her attorney suggested, she will succeed in showing that a person can redeem herself by overcoming noncriminal blemishes in her background and achieve a bright future.

What we do know at this point is that nothing stays under wraps after you or someone else puts it online. All sorts of indiscreet images and private digital communication, such as direct messages or sexting, remain available on the Internet, particularly the most personally embarrassing ones.

The Oxnard teacher, according to the commission, is not a suitable teacher partly because of what it called her "continual deceit" when school officials confronted her about the films. The commission added: "Given the viral and infinite nature of the Internet, an imminent end to (her) notoriety does not appear likely. … With little change to her notoriety, the impairment to (her) relationships with her students and colleagues will likely continue."

In some ways, this situation may be compared to that of former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York. He was viewed as the likely next mayor of New York City until his political career exploded in 2011 after he used social media to send lewd images of himself to women, most of whom he had not even met.

Besides sending the images, former Rep. Weiner lied about them publicly, claiming that his Twitter account had been hacked. He resigned under pressure from fellow Democrats, interrupting what had been a bright political career.

There's a clear lesson here. If there's an image so personal that you wouldn't want it on the Internet and would lie about it to avoid embarrassment, then don't record it because it could end up online.